O'Tink it is beautiful...and yes I have lots of theories about your Q, having pondered such things...and I actually think that SOUL is the right word here.
Because somehow when we humankind make a really deep connection with the land, there is a kind of mutual symbiosis...the land and the people shape each other, in beautiful ways...and lovely cultural stuff can blossom out of that! And the British Isles are REALLY special; ancient cultures there long before ancient Rome even arrived...
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So the Swiss in Basel do their drumming as they have since the Middle Ages, and the Scottish do their piping as they have for who-knows-how-long! "My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here..."